SCOTT McGowan has made a career out of scoring goals in this part of the world.

He may no longer be wearing the colours of 1874 Northwich, but he showed just why Nantwich Town took a punt on signing him in the summer.

Witton Albion were on the wrong end of his clinical finishing as he scored two superb goals and brought their FA Trophy journey to an end.

Wincham Park also witnessed a towering Ben Harrison header - not for the first time after his past spells with Albion - as Carl Macauley's men were haunted by ghosts of the past.

This all came after a first half largely controlled by Albion after Scott Bakkor have given them an early lead.

There was a late crumb of comfort with Rob Hopley returning to the scoresheet, but how on earth did it go so spectaularly wrong?

They had made such a promising start, hounding the Dabbers into mistakes with relentless pressing.

A fluid front three of Bakkor, Tom Owens and James Hooper looked threatening and caused their visitors no end of trouble.

When Bakkor beat Nantwich's former Albion keeper Greg Hall with a left-footed effort after being played in by Owens, it hardly came as a shock.

They continued to be the only team in the game until McGowan almost single-handedly dragged his side back into the contest.

Chris Renshaw had been a virtual spectator when he suddenly found the striker bearing down on him after robbing Josh Wardle on the touchline.

His finish was unerring and all of a sudden, Nantwich had a route back into the game.

If that goal did not demonstrate the lethal touch football followers of the town knew all about, his second certainly did.

Steve McNulty appeared to have the situation covered, with McGowan in possession outside the area and options looking sparse.

Seconds later, the ball was in Renshaw's net after the Nantwich number nine had opened up his body and curled an effort into the corner.

That goal came just four minutes before the break and proved the game's turning point as Albion lost control.

Carl Macauley rolled the dice, bringing on frontman Steven Tames and reverting to a back four as his side chased the game.

Barely 10 minutes after the break, though, Harrison put a further dent into their hopes of doing just that as he powered home a header from a corner.

That set the platform for Nantwich to assume full control.

They set traps that Witton duly fell into, allowing them almost free reign on the counter-attack.

David Webb slid home having been played through one-on-one before Luke Walsh casually dinked over Renshaw after another clinical break.

There was the late positive of Hopley deftly glancing home a Hooper cross for his first Witton goal since April 2019, but it was too little too late.

There has been little negative about Albion's season thus far, but this proved a bridge too far.